The fans attacked the players at the training ground after they missed the CL and now most of the first team is going to get released because of unsafe work environment (or somesuch) laws.

Yup, It's incredible. They could miss out on £100+ million worth of players. Gelson Martins ( I'd have him at Liverpool ) William Carvhallo ( Apparently Everton Bound ) Rui Patricio ( Wolves ) all could leave for free. To be honest, I'd have all 3.

KK wrote:When it comes to presenters, pundits and analysis the NFL Show on the BBC is way out in front of everybody else. Even if you don't give a gooseberry fool about NFL, Mark Chapman, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell are just so great together. It's laid back, it's still a bit blokey, it's brilliant.

Most ex-pros from US sports always come across really well as analysts. Dunno if it's because most of them are college educated or what but they don't seem anywhere near as thick as the football pundits here.

KK wrote:When it comes to presenters, pundits and analysis the NFL Show on the BBC is way out in front of everybody else. Even if you don't give a gooseberry fool about NFL, Mark Chapman, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell are just so great together. It's laid back, it's still a bit blokey, it's brilliant.

Yeah it's very good - a good balance of humour, likeable people and informative analysis. Compare it to most football punditry I see, where they literally just describe what's happened and provide analysis like "he needs to do better there", and it's miles ahead. Even sports like rugby and F1 have better insight and pundits.

No surprise to see Collymore spouting shite, he always seems a bit unhinged.

Benzin wrote:Think we have a belief that because someone has played at the top level for X amount of years, they have the knowledge and experience to talk about it...

Neville and Carragher seem to be the exception rather than the norm, though I do like Danny Murphy as well...

I used to like Danny Murphy but he's come out with some crazy sh*t in the past couple of years.

Heres a couple of his highlights:

On Coutinho wanting to go to Barca:

“He’s not worth £150m, could they get £100m for him? Maybe,” says Murphy.

“If Barca are prepared to pay over £80m for Coutinho, I think that’s good business.

“Coutinho scored 14 goals last season and that was his best return. If Liverpool rate him at around £100m, what’s Dele Alli worth? He’s better than Coutinho. Different but better.

“If they get £80m or £90m, you’d think they’d sign someone else. We’re hypothesising, but the goals and assists those players get might double or treble what Coutinho was bringing in, and you’ve also not got a player sat there unhappy.

“I’m not saying Liverpool should get rid of Coutinho, because he’s a wonderful footballer and there’s no doubt about that.

“But if he wants to go and we get £80m for him, I’d take that.”

On Englands U17's winning the World Cup:

“There’s no England badge in the picture of them winning the World Cup – for me, that’s wrong.

“They’ve all turned their shirts around because they want their names across their chests, so everybody across the world can see who they are.

“They’re all saying, ‘I’m a good young player coming through, look at me’, but that in itself is what is wrong with society.

“Some of those players could go on to be superstars. We’re talking some amazing talent in that group and the freedom they played with, everybody should be happy to see that in an England shirt, and I am too, I was proud of them.

“But the England badge not being in that picture says a lot.

“The fact they want their names to be on the front of their shirts and think about getting their name out there so people know who they are – they are not wrong, but it’s what is wrong at the moment.”

I have fond memories of Murphy as a player but he is talking nonsense in those quotes above. We can argue about the value of Coutinho (I think he was worth £100m+) but Murphy fails to take the circumstances into account. Coutinho was still Liverpool's best player at that point and not only would it have been difficult to find a replacement, it probably would've required the vast majority of the transfer fee being spent. And then you've got his nonsense about just going out and buying someone who would've got 40 to 60 goals and assists to replace Coutino, numbers only a handful of players have got last season, none of whom would've been playing in central midfield like Coutinho did for Liverpool.

That second one just strikes me as a pointless thing to complain about. I would've put whinging about players not celebrating winning the World Cup properly down to someone being sick on a photographer or oversleeping and missing the celebratory parade, not how they wore a shirt.